Twenty years ago this week, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, providing decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy. The 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, better known as the QSA, provides more than 30 million acre-feet of high-priority conserved water to the San Diego region over multiple decades. It helped stabilize demands on the Colorado River and reduced California’s overdependence […]
Board is pivotal in protecting state’s water supplies
Sandra L. Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, issued the following statement on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony today before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the drought on the Colorado River and need for near- and long-term innovation and investment: “The water situation across the state and Southwest is dire, as historically dry conditions exacerbated by climate change shrink water storage levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell and threaten the loss of power generation. One look at the river system today communicates as no words […]
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday received updates about two potential capital projects to meet the region’s long-term need for water through 2035 – a seawater desalination plant at Camp Pendleton and a large-scale conveyance system to deliver water from the Colorado River. Both options – and several others – will be considered as the Water Authority crafts its long-range planning document, the 2013 Regional Water Facilities Optimization and Master Plan.
Residential and business water use in San Diego County fell 12.8 percent during the first year of regional water shortages and mandatory water use restrictions, according to a report provided today to the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors.
The All-American Canal Lining Project (AACLP), a major water conservation project whose benefits include improving San Diego County’s water supply reliability, has won the American Public Works Association (APWA) 2010 Environmental Public Works Project of the Year award for projects greater than $75 million. APWA recognized the project as a model for creating partnerships between local and state water agencies to invest in California water supply development.
The Colorado River Municipal Utilities, consisting of Aurora Water, the Central Arizona Project, Denver Water, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the city of Phoenix, the San Diego County Water Authority, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Western Urban Water Coalition, jointly have issued the following statement in response to the release of Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study Interim Report No. 1 by the Bureau of Reclamation and agencies representing the Basin states:
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors today unanimously approved a resolution urging the state of California to move forward with long-delayed plans to restore the Salton Sea.
As part of the regional effort to reduce water waste, the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies are again partnering with the local chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association during national Fix a Leak Week, March 14-20, to make fixing water leaks less costly for residents and businesses.
The San Diego region has been awarded $31.1 million in grant money by the state Department of Water Resources for a variety of projects that will increase local water supplies, decrease water demands, improve water quality, manage stormwater, restore habitat and enhance species.
